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more than a year. One way or the other all of the women had ended up dead with no one to even miss them. She knew that they all shared the same circumstance. Abia had made it clear that Samad was a valued customer of hers. He had been purchasing girls and getting away with murder for years. The shrine put a fear in her heart that she had never felt before and as she backed out of the closet she sobbed uncontrollably. Flustered and with her nerves on edge she fumbled with the keys as she locked the office. Terror filled her as she began to put a countdown on her own life. She could sense Samad’s disinterest in her and she now knew where it would eventually lead. She had been with Samad for six months and knew that it wouldn’t be long before he disposed of her.

I’m going to end up just like them, she thought as the faces of the beautiful young women flashed through her mind, haunting her psyche. She quickly replaced the keys and breathed a sigh of relief when she found Samad sleeping soundly. As she stood above him she knew that there was no way that she could lay beside him. I should get him before he gets me, she thought. Liberty wished that she had the soul of a killer, but she knew that it was something that she did not possess. Her heart wasn’t black enough to commit murder. She had seen it before with her own eyes. She knew how much blood could come out of one human being, and it wasn’t something that she wanted on her conscience.

I have to find a way out of here, she thought. I have to leave him before he kills me.

FOURTEEN

A’SHAI COULDN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT LIBERTY. She had been on his mind for months. She had grown into a woman, but she still looked exactly the same to A’shai. When he saw her, his heart felt as if it had skipped a beat. Feeling possessive over her, he was prepared to bid until his bank ran out, but Baron had stopped him. Seeing her on the platform had saddened him because after all the time that had passed, she was still stuck in the system. A’shai felt as though he had been her downfall. He was the one who had led her onto a prisoner’s ship, and she was still plunging into the darkness all these years later. He had tried to take his mind off her. He hustled tirelessly in the streets, stacking his paper and going hard in the game. Getting money was the perfect distraction to keep him from pining after the childhood love from his past. It was the moments that he stood still that he saw her face . . . moments like now when he was laying in bed with his girlfriend Jenny that he wished the girl next to him was Liberty.

“What’s wrong, Shai?” she asked. “You’ve been so distant.”

A’shai pulled his arm from behind her head and replied, “I’m just tired. I’m not trying to be cold towards you. I’ve got some things to take care of today though so don’t make any plans to hang around here,” he said. He wasn’t fond of the way she was slowly becoming a fixture in his life. She was trying to plant roots on him, and he wasn’t interested in cultivating their relationship. His connection with her had been interrupted the moment he laid eyes on Liberty at the ball. He wanted a sincere love . . . something genuine, and Jenny couldn’t provide that. Women wanted him now because he had the world in the palm of his hands. He was young, rich, and powerful, which was attractive to them . . . but Liberty had known him before all of it . . . she had loved him without any of it . . . and wouldn’t see him any differently because of it. He wanted her and as he thought of her being sold and purchased like an item he felt a great pain in his chest. If Liberty was anything like the little girl she used to be, then she was an amazing woman, and A’shai needed her in his life.

Jenny, on the other hand, was high maintenance and required a lot of attention. She was used to being spoiled. She was one of the hottest chicks in Detroit, and many men